Overall support for abortion rights on the rise despite restrictions across US: poll

by Olafimihan Oshin - 04/26/23 1:23 PM ET

Protesters cheer during a Planned Parenthood rally in support of abortion access outside the Supreme Court on Saturday, April. 15, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

Americans’ overall support for abortion rights has increased despite state legislatures and courtrooms across the U.S. implementing bans and restrictions on the medical procedure and medication, according to a new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll.

The poll, published Wednesday, found that 61 percent of respondents said they support abortion rights, while 37 percent of those surveyed said they opposed.

This is a 6-point increase from a similar poll in June 2022, when 55 percent of respondents said they support abortion rights in this country.

The poll revealed a stark divide along party lines. Among Democrat respondents, 84 percent said they supported abortion rights, compared to 62 percent of independents and 33 percent of Republicans.

Similarly, 65 percent of Republicans surveyed said they oppose abortion rights, compared to 35 percent of independents and 14 percent of Democrats, according to the poll.

Nearly 60 percent of respondents also said in the survey that they opposed the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year, while 40 percent of respondents supported the decision.

The poll comes nearly a year after the landmark Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision — which struck down the precedent established nearly 50 years ago that guaranteed women a constitutional right to abortion — handed states authority to drastically limit or ban the procedure.

As a result of the ruling, multiple GOP-led states have either implemented or enacted their own abortion bans and restrictions. North Dakota became the latest state to sign a bill that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — one of the strictest abortion bans in the country.

The Supreme Court last week paused a lower court’s ruling on implementing restrictions on access to the abortion pill mifepristone, siding with the Biden administration on the matter.

Thirty-five percent of respondents said they support a law that bans access to medication abortion, while 64 percent of those surveyed oppose it.

The PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll was conducted from April 17-19 with a total of 1,291 respondents participating in the survey. The poll’s margin of error was 3.4 percentage points.